Le Jardin, University Lab advance to set up all-ILH state D2 final

Greg Yamamoto | SL

For the second straight year, its an all-ILH affair for the Division II title.

Le Jardin needed five sets to squeeze past Konawaena, 22-25, 29-27, 21-25, 25-18, 15-9, while University Lab swept past Molokai, 25-21, 25-17, 25-14, to make a repeat trip to the championship match of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Boys Volleyball Championships.

Elijah-Shore Flores led all hitters with 22 kills, adding 13 digs and three aces for good measure. Laakea Kamahele and Jackson Swirsky had 13 kills and four total blocks each, and setter Brennan Nakayama dished out 50 big assists to go along with two blocks and two aces.

After losing the first set, the Bulldogs battled point for point with the Wildcats in set two, with neither team leading by more than two points at any point in the set. Konawaena had chances to take a two sets to none lead at 24-23, and again at 25-24, but Le Jardin turned back both opportunities. Le Jardin had its first opportunity to win the set at 26-25, but the Wildcats got back to deuce on a Travis Nakamoto kill.

Then with the score knotted at 27-all, the Bulldogs finally got the spurt it needed to breakthrough, with a kill from Flores to get to set point and a hitting error on the Wildcats that evened the match.

Konawaena stormed back in set three, building a lead as large as eight points at 16-8 en route to a 25-21 win, but Le Jardin countered with a 13-6 scoring advantage in the back half of set four, which culminated on a Jake Heidsieck kill, to force a winner-take-all fifth.

In the final set, the Bulldogs found some early breathing room, leading 8-4, but the Wildcats closed to within a pair of points at 11-9 on kills by Travis Nakamoto and Ellison Morgan.

From there, it was all Le Jardin, with kills from Laakea Kamahele, Heidsieck and Flores to get to match point, and the ender coming on an attack error by the Wildcats.

In contrast, University Lab needed just three sets to dispatch MIL champ Molokai and make a return to the D2 title game.

The Jr. Bows got 23 kills from Koa Laboy and served up nine aces as a team, while holding the Farmers to a .078 hitting percentage.

Other than momentary leads in set one for Molokai, the last coming at 11-10, University Lab never trailed in the match.

For the season, University has only dropped six sets in total, two of them coming at the hands of Le Jardin, a five-set thriller on Apr 3 that required the Jr. Bows to rally from a two sets to none hole.